The best cat video ever: Morning File, Thursday, May 18, 2017

News

1. Stephen McNeil probably can’t meet his preschool pledge

In a photo illustrating a Liberal press release, Premier Stephen McNeil paints egg cartons to demonstrate his commitment to early childhood education.

Jennifer Henderson reports:

The Liberal’s pre-election budget included $3.7 million to expand Early Learning Centres to 30 new locations by September, just four months from now, but the locations haven’t been identified, there’s no money to help daycares transition, and school boards have been given no direction on how to implement the program.

2. NDP says it will nix Bayers Lake Outpatient Centre

Yesterday, the NDP issued a press release saying that, if elected, it would reverse the Liberals’ decision to site an Outpatient Care Centre in Bayers Lake.

3. Opioid deaths

“According to the province’s Health Department, 12 people died from opioid overdoses in Nova Scotia between January and April of this year,” reports Angela MacIvor for the CBC. “An additional seven cases were deemed ‘probable opioid toxicity deaths.’ None involved illicit fentanyl.”

4. NSTU going to court over Bill 75

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union issued the following statement yesterday:

The NSTU has submitted its mandatory two-month notice of application with the Nova Scotia Attorney General for a Charter Challenge against Bill 75.

The application contends that with Bill 75, and the imposition of the legislation, the Premier and his government repeatedly engaged in activities that violated NSTU public school members’ rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression guaranteed under the Charter.

“The current government took numerous steps to erode NSTU’s ability to engage in a fair collective bargaining process, which culminated with Bill 75,” says NSTU president Liette Doucet. “The government actions were both reckless and inappropriate and prevented teachers from negotiating a fair contract that included needed reforms to improve classroom conditions.”

She adds, “Never before have Nova Scotia teachers been treated so unfairly by a government. Therefore, we had to take a stand by initiating the first province-wide strike in our history.”

6. The Icarus Report

Yesterday, the Transportation Safety Board updated its information about Jazz Air flight 8861, from Gander to Halifax on Monday:

Approximately 20 minutes after levelling off in cruise, the flight crew received multiple landing gear, flaps, hydraulic system, and brakes EICAS messages, including a FLAPS DEGRADED message. Additionally, the aircraft’s altitude began to deviate up and down, speed cues became unreliable on number 1 and 2 Primary Flight Displays (PFD), and the flaps position indication was fluctuating between 0 and 30 degrees. The flight crew disengaged the autopilot and the altitude deviations ceased. A lower altitude was requested and the aircraft descended. The flight crew decided to divert to Sydney/J.A. Douglas McCurdy, NS (CYQY) and declared an emergency. The flight landed at CYQY in VMC conditions without further incident. The operator’s maintenance replaced a faulty flap position transmitter and carried out applicable operational checks.

There were several incidents reported Thursday, including:

• WestJet flight 226 from Calgary to Halifax was descending to land at Stanfield International but was ordered to pull up because a plane that had landed previously was still on the runway.

• At 6:10pm a formation of four planes flying historic replicas of the early 20th century Nieuport II plane reported that a black and silver drone was flying at about 3,000 feet altitude, 10 nautical miles northwest of Stanfield International and and within a half nautical mile of their flight path.

• British Airways flight 2203 from London to Cancun was diverted to Gander because of a medical emergency.

• El Al flight 015 from Tel Aviv to Boston reported a medical emergency, but there was a doctor on board, just like in the movies.

• Delta flight 130 from Atlanta to Munich was diverted to Boston “due to lavatory problems.” That must’ve been a barrel of monkeys.

I love that they are a cheap, simple, grassroots answer to a classic problem facing pedestrians: drivers who just won’t yield. But I hate that they are essentially one more way to shift responsibility for the behaviour of said drivers onto pedestrians.

Stacey contacted me before this appeared in the Advocate. I couldn’t discuss it with her, as I’m too busy with another project right now. Had I the time, and were I to consider publishing her comments, I would have first contacted McNaughton for comment and a response, then I would’ve run the whole issue past my legal counsel, and only then decided whether to publish or not and if so, what that would look like. Honestly, I really don’t have the time to even think about it right now, and this would’ve required a great deal of time and energy to think about.

Robert is of course free to do whatever he wants, and face whatever consequences come his way. That’s not me expressing an opinion; it’s me saying I don’t have time to think about it, and maybe he did, and maybe he would come to a different conclusion than I would. I really have no idea. I don’t know what to think. That’s why I didn’t link to it this morning.

After receiving a letter threatening legal action by Mr. McNaughton’s lawyer, and after receiving our own legal advise, we reluctantly decided to remove the post. We’re only a tiny website and simply do not have the means to launch a legal defense.

Don’t you just love opposition parties promising to cancel the existing elected party’s decisions? Thus delaying the roll out of much needed services and infrastructure. The negatives concerning these promises are not balanced out by the potential positives cited by the opposition parties and I guess they do not care that in the process they expend more taxpayer’s money to add to the end bill if they ever get around to implementing their “improved” solutions. More money wasted and little progress to show for it. No wonder the public is disillusioned with how our government works.

How about when the decisions are at least questionable? If opposition parties choose to run on a policy that includes cancelling them and especially if they have something better to offer, why shouldn’t they? The problem arises when they cancel anything the government suggests for purely partisan reasons.

If you are thinking of the Liberals’ proposal to build an outpatient clinic at Bayer’s Lake Industrial Park, I agree his issue is long overdue and needs to be expedited as the Centennial Building is a proven hazard to patients. However choosing a site that is hard to reach by public transit, and paying ten times its value to a prominent Liberal donor, does raise genuine concerns that the Premier should reasonably have foreseen.

If the price paid for the property was not fair market value, then they should renegotiate the deal. But the jabber about NO public transit is just that, the municipality can run transit where they want in whatever frequency they want and a regular shuttle from the QEII might alleviate most of those issues. There is no analysis made that supports that most outpatients walk or take the bus to the existing out patient facilities. But when a few people raise their voice in news media articles, all of a sudden some people say that “everyone” is against the siting of the project and that just is not so. It is aways better news to report conflicting views than views of support, because the supporters often do not feel the need to speak out. I have yet to see the comprehensive survey that was done that led to the selection of the proposed site and I venture that no one outside of the existing government has seen it either, because those type of documents are always reviewed in-camera behind closed doors…. but now that the decision has been made, I feel that those decision making documents should be made public so that the “facts” are available, instead of the fiction and guessing that has been put forward thus far. Until I see the facts, I do not see any real conflicts with the proposed project that cannot be resolved if those that have the power to do so seek solutions. It is too easy to complain to the press and have those stories aired; people that are satisfied generally sit back because they are happy with the proposed solution and do not feel the need to seek out the press because they desire no changes. That is one of the flaws in our existing news reporting system. The Land price issue should be investigated, because the numbers do seem high, the decision support documentation should support the decisions that were ultimately made; but then so did the cost to build the new Convention Centre seem out of line and it was built anyway, eh? .

Good points. Thus the actual purchase price is yet to be determined and the lot size remains in question. If the outpatient facility ends up being sited there, it is hoped that they purchase enough land so that future expansions for the foot print of the facility would be possible.

You’ve shown that photo of the Premier and others at the proposed sight of the Bayers Lake Outpatient Centre several times, but have consistently misidentified the woman front row right. It’s clearly Hillary Clinton.